Rick Jones wrote:
wrote:
NASA PLANS TEST OF 'ELECTRONIC NOSE' ON INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA astronauts on space shuttle Endeavour's
STS-126 mission will install an instrument on the International
Space Station that can "smell" dangerous chemicals in the
air. Designed to help protect crew members' health and safety, the
experimental "ENose" will monitor the space station's environment
for harmful chemicals such as ammonia, mercury, methanol and
formaldehyde.

The ENose fills the long-standing gap between onboard alarms and
complex analytical instruments. Air-quality problems have occurred
before on the International Space Station, space shuttle and Russian
Space Station Mir. In most cases, the chemicals were identified only
after the crew had been exposed to them, if at all. The ENose, which
will run continuously and autonomously, is the first instrument on
the station that will detect and quantify chemical leaks or spills as
they happen.

"The ENose is a 'first-responder' that will alert crew members of
possible contaminants in the air and also analyze and quantify
targeted changes in the cabin environment," said Margaret A. Ryan,
the principal investigator of the ENose project at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, in Pasadena, Calif. JPL built and
manages the device.

Myths about pencils vs spacepens and what not notwithstanding, how
does ENose differ from what Cyrano was doing?

http://www.smithsdetection.com/eng/history_cyrano.php
http://www.rusticcanyon.com/portfolio/cmp_cyrano.html

It smells, if you will, like a duplication. Although it isn't clear
that Cyrano is a going concern even with Smiths?

rick jones
--
No need to believe in either side, or any side. There is no cause.
There's only yourself. The belief is in your own precision. - Jobert
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH...

Most humans can't smell bad food or even their own ****, much less if
there's something weird going on that spells disaster, and of course
while within a given EVA suit is cutting off all exterior smells of
anything good or bad.

Most dogs have far better than any human nose capability. Perhaps ISS
needs a dog, or even a pig.

So, a robotic/android Enose is a good technology to exploit, as it
could save a human butt here and there, not to mention saving
countless billions worth of space technology from going past the point
of no return.

The Etouch, Eeare and the Eeye already far outperform anything human
by thousands of fold, so why not the Enose?

~ Brad Guth Brad_Guth Brad.Guth BradGuth BG / “Guth Usenet”